THE BRONX — A public school teacher bred, raised and trained roosters for cockfighting at a backyard Bronx farm for more than five years before being busted Tuesday, federal prosecutors said.
Hector Cruz, who taught ESL at P.S. 211 in West Farms, was arrested for running an inter-state cockfighting operation in which he groomed roosters for battle then sold them, according to the U.S. Attorney's office in Manhattan.
Detectives from the NYPD’s Animal Investigations Squad first learned of Cruz’s operation after a 311 call was made in February 2016 about roosters in the backyard of a building, according to the office.
When investigators arrived, they found several dozen roosters that looked like they were groomed for cockfighting, prosecutors said.
Detectives scoured Cruz's social media accounts and found him boasting about his training success.
“I don’t fight my birds either, but I do supply fighters with battle worthy birds who deliver in the pit,” Cruz wrote in one private message.
Cruz, who’s been a city teacher since 1996, was charged with selling, possessing and transporting animals for fighting and faces up to five years in prison.
He was making more than $94,000 a year as a teacher and has since been reassigned by the DOE, officials said.
U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara called Cruz’s operation “inhumane.”
“Hector Cruz ran a cruel and illegal business of raising and selling roosters for the purpose of vicious cockfighting, where knives and other sharp instruments are attached to the fighting roosters’ legs,” U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara said in a statement.
“Cruz’s days of allegedly profiting from this inhumane business are over.”
It's unclear why it took a year for the feds to bring charges against the teacher.
His lawyer could not immediately be reached for comment.
